Stunned
into Silence………………
This
magazine is late….late because I am unexpectedly short of copy.
Is it that you have nothing to say or perhaps that the world is in too
confused a state to comment?
Where are our prophets?
Or perhaps, because we have reached Part 4 “The Exhorter” of Brian
Favell’s contributions on The Gifts of Ministry, I should ask, “Where are
our exhorters?” With only one exception I have not
planned a theme for this magazine since I became editor.
I have prayed about it and asked God
to direct its structure and
articles. I have often
marvelled at the links and continuity that I did not plan.
This time as I draw together what has been provided I am very conscious
that God has a message for us.
I trust that we will hear it so I ask you to pray as you read and listen
for His voice.
Mike
Endicott has sent us news of miracles but it has meant a change of approach, he
quotes Matthew
18:3. A change to a simple
child-like faith, a willingness to trust Him.
Brian Favell speaks of an exhorter as one who “ has in his heart
that assurance,……that FAITH,…”
and says, “his principal work is to stir up a similar faith in
others”. This
may disturb you…. it suddenly sounds too easy….
But Jen Rees-Larcombe warns us not to pressure the grieving with
our advice to “Trust God” when they need space to be healed slowly. As I looked at these articles appearing in
the same issue and also at our chairman’s letter on Forgiveness, my
first reaction is that I would not have put them together.
But from personal experience I can say that God led me to trust Him in a
new way through Brian’s illness.
When I found myself being urged by a close relative to claim healing and
pray urgently expecting a miracle I got very confused,
but I could hear God saying “I don’t want you to ask, I want you to
trust.” I
needed to do this if I was to gain any peace, I knew that I had to give Brian
completely to the Lord. It
took three days during which time I went through a very necessary grieving.
Then suddenly, in the middle of the night, I knew that it was done and
the words “all
things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.” (1
Chronicles 29:14) came to mind.
Not only had I given Brian to the Lord but I had the assurance that he
already belonged to the Lord.
We have both been blessed by this “trust” that is real
and
which we could not have manufactured ourselves.
From
that time on I knew that my prayer could truly be “Thy will be done, Thy
kingdom come and Thy name glorified”.
As I draw closer to God I know that this is a valid prayer in all
circumstances but it does not relieve us of pain and suffering.
In fact God has shown me another prayer and exhortation from St. Paul, in
Philippians 3:v.7-21, in particular, verses 10 & 11,
“I
want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of
sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so,
somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
In
early September we read again Psalms 1 and 2 and I knew that they were the text
for this magazine’s footnotes, I didn’t
know why because it was before September 11th.
On
that day we went down to West Wales in our motor caravan, to look for choughs
along the coast. We
arrived at St. David’s camp-site just before 6.00pm and so turned on the radio
news. This meant
that I was protected from the horror of the TV pictures and was able to look to
God asking only that His will be
done. I was surprised
at my lack of human feelings for I am a very emotional person and prayer so
often brings pain as I reach to the Lord.
However I was not surprised that it had happened and thought back to what
I had written in Issue 23 on Romans 8.
We are the “children of God” and must allow the Holy Spirit to
transform us into His likeness, we need to listen again to the words of Jesus
and seek to imitate Him in our lives today.
I’m not asking the impossible or even for a miracle but simply that we
are obedient to his word. It is in His silence that we shall hear His voice.
Instead
of asking “Would He retaliate with bombs?”
I ask some simpler questions.
“Why have we not loved our neighbour
as ourselves?” The
Christian Church should have been showing the way for the last two thousand
years and it is hard now to make amends, but we do have an unfair amount of the
world’s resources and perhaps those who have turned to Islam have a few points
on the their side. How
much do you know about Islam? Unfortunately
those who are now attacking Moslems in the UK
know little; as Christians we have a responsibility to show them the love
of Christ. Please hear
this correctly I am not advocating “multi-faith” because Christianity and
Islam are diametrically opposed,
but at the start of Islam Mohammed proclaimed One God, and much of his teaching
was based on the Bible. That
is where the claims of a peaceful religion can be found.
We have to love the Moslems and all unbelievers into the Kingdom not
“bully” or defeat them, for only the Holy Spirit will convict them of the
truth and our part has to be gentle and caring, offering the prayers that God
puts into our hearts. Was
it fortuitous that the book I took to read again when I went to Pembrokeshire
was Mother Basilea Schlinks “Allah
or the God of the Bible-- What is the Truth?” ?
This I bought in 1985 and I know that the 1987 edition is now out of
print but Basililea Schlink’s message is a prophetic one.
I have come home and taken two other books from my shelf:
“Who
is this Allah” by G.J.O.Moshay ISBN
0 9518386 1X
“Faiths in Conflict?” by Vinoth Ramachandra ISBN 0 85111 650 7
both
are challenging me and food for prayer.
In
John 18:36 Jesus says, “My
kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my
servants fight……”
He
was going to the cross on which he won the victory with the weapon of LOVE.
The western countries are right to insist that the war is against
Terrorism not against Islam but the Talliban and Al Qaeda do not see it that way
and they will have an influence on Moslems living throughout the world.
Christians must expect to come under attack so we must live as God’s
children, awaiting the time when “
we shall be revealed”
Romans 8:18-21.
Mike
Endicott is showing the way as he accepts the “new” way of
child-like faith revealing His power and glory.
Mary Newsom